Most Icelanders feel safe walking alone at night in their communities

Midnight sun on Grótta The westernmost tip of Reykjavík, the Capital of the Midnight Sun - and the Northern Lights. Photo/Vilhelm Gunnarsson

The nights in Iceland, with the Northern Lights in winter and the Midnight Sun in the summer can truly spectacular. A beautiful summer night in Reykjavík is one of the loveliest times in the city. Watching the ducks and listening to the songbirds while you walk around the downtown pond under the midnight sun in the middle of night in July is probably the best time to enjoy the city. Good thing then that Reykjavík is a very safe city!

Very few people feel usafe after dark
The overwhelming majority of Icelanders feel safe when they are walking at night in their niegbhorhood a new study conducted by the Social Science Research Institute at the National University reveals. The study found that 92% of Icelanders feel safe walking alone at night in the area where they live in, reports the National Broadcasting Service.

Unsurprisingly men felt more safe and secure as women, as 3.7% of men reported to feeling unsecure or somewhat insecure, while 12% women say they feel unsecure walking alone outside after dark. When asked about what kinds of crimes people feared, most named burglary. Roughly 38 percent of all respondents, worried about falling victim to burglary while 19 percent feared assault.

Suburbanites feel unsafe in downtown Reykjavík
It is only on weekends in downtown Reykjavík, when the bars stay open until 3 or 4 in the morning, that Icelanders feel uncomfortable walking alone. Still, the majority of the residents in downtown felt safe in downtown Reykjavík. It was primarily people who live in the suburbs who visit downtown to party who felt unsecure while walking alone.

60 percent of all respondents felt uncomfortable walking alone at night during weekends in down-town Reykjavík. Again, there was a clear difference between men and women, as nearly half of the women who responded felt unsafe walking alone at night in down-town Reykjavík, while only 19 percent of men felt the same way.